Thursday, February 27, 2014

Thursday, February 20, 2014

This is the main character from a novel I'm revising. You'd think I'd sketch my book characters more often, but for some reason they seem less real to me if I do. And so it goes... I like this drawing, but it's not quite her.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Here are a few promotional illustrations I did for my wonderful agency, New Leaf Literary & Media, as well as a character sketch to test out a digital painting technique.

Finding a method of digital painting that's easy, loose and works well with my sketchy style has always been a holy grail for me. I can spend a kazillion hours and paint something that looks like an oil painting, but I don't have a kazillion hours these days. Besides, that sort of approach doesn't lend itself to the children's books I write, and is far too labor-intensive for comic work -- other than covers. The above technique feels comfy, cozy and very me. And even better, it's super fast! I don't want to jinx it, but I think I possibly just "chose wisely." We'll see as I continue to test it out... :)

Monday, September 30, 2013

I like posting with artwork, so here's an unfinished painting of a supervillain.

But really I'm posting because I'm super excited to announce that I'll be contributing to a Kickstarter for an art book called the Masters of Anatomy.

Here are the official details;

Masters of Anatomy is a one-of-a-kind anatomy book drawn by 95 animators, illustrators and comic book artists. It features work from world-class artists like Francisco Herrera, Pascal Campion, Florian Satzinger, Warren Louw, Loish and many others. The result is a volume unlike anything that exists today. A must have for any aspiring artist; digital or traditional. www.mastersofanatomy.com - Support this Kickstarter on Friday, October 11th.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Here's some of the freelance work I did for Zynga Dallas' Castleville game last year. Of all the freelance gigs I've had, this was one of my favorites; nice people, solid pay and fun assignments.

When I first toured the studio, I brought my children with me, then an infant and toddler. It resulted in a harrowing kid-vomit-art-department-greek-yogurt-incident. Super horrifying/embarrassing! It's still amazes me that Zynga wanted to work with me after that, ha ha, but I'm glad they did. It was a great gig.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Yes, I'm still here! I know... five months, no posts, but I had baby in January, which is my third munchkin if anyone is counting. This means 90% of my day is spent kissing hurt fingers, reading Richard Scarry books out loud, making Star Wars shaped lunch items (wookiee tortillas anyone?) and having dance parties in the living room. As for the other 10%, I was, and still am, busy with work-related art projects -- which are fun and exciting, but like most work-related art projects, they aren't something I can share here yet.

However! While I was off sleepless and zombie-like in cute newborn land, this movie came out. I worked on it back in 2007 until I learned I was expecting my daughter and no longer wanted to commute to Vancouver. I'd long ago buried this artwork on an external hard-drive, but now that the film has been released, I thought I'd dig out some of my favorite pieces.

Since little babies and theaters don't mix, I still haven't actually seen the film, but I can't wait to!

The drawing above is of the film's villain. I had no idea at the time that he would eventually be voiced by William Shatner. I probably would have gotten all starry-eyed and too nervous to actually do a good design.

This design never made it out of the art department, as far as I know anyway. But I liked him!

There were several character designers and we all collaborated. I ended up focusing mainly on Shanker -- the villain, and Gary -- the protagonist of the film. Working on Gary meant I was also helping establish what his race looked like. The painting above is an early idea.

This is another take. I still like his curvy legs and space shoes.

This was the painting where we all said "Okay! Yeah! That's him!" But then we needed to figure out what his body looked like and define his face more.

I believe this was my next attempt. I thought it would be neat to have more alien shaped feet and hands, but I think there were concerns that he wouldn't be relatable if he was too unusual looking.

My painting here is a little flat, but you can tell we are narrowing things down.

Here's a lineup of Gary's family with an even more finalized Gary. The Scorch sketch on the left was something I did one afternoon because no one had done any designs for Scorch yet. When I left, he was not a major character, but he seems to be all over the film now. That was probably the coolest surprise for me when I saw the trailer.

This is a version of Io. I think Io is a female now. I based this painting on someone else's design. I think it was either David Krentz's or Fred Gambino's.

And this was another design that didn't make it out of the art department. I liked all his ears, though! Super hearing!

I've mentioned David and Fred, and I should also mention that the talented Michele Graybeal, Gary Glover, Sarah Airiess, Tim Guyer, Daniel Leech and Greg Spalenka, along with our production designer, Barry E. Jackson, also all worked hard on the character designs and look of the film. (Please forgive me if I've forgotten anyone!)